After nearly three years of punishing lockdowns, China has finally relaxed many of its "zero-COVID" policies following widespread demonstrations across the country.
For the last three years, the Chinese government has subjected its population to strict lockdowns, mass testing, and heightened surveillance. Millions of people have been trapped in their homes, sometimes for months at a time. Lockdown measures have reportedly involved apartment buildings being welded shut, mass starvation, and an unknown number of deaths after hospitals turned away non-COVID patients.
